Cervical and ocular vestibular evoked myogenic potentials in multiple sclerosis participants

Multiple sclerosis (MS) is a chronic neurological disease that affects brain and spinal cord. The infratentorial region contains the cerebellum and brainstem. Vestibular evoked myogenic potentials (VEMPs) are short-latency myogenic responses. Cervical vestibular evoked myogenic potential (cVEMP) is a manifestation of vestibulocolic reflex and ocular vestibular evoked myogenic potential (oVEMP) contributes to the linear vestibular-ocular reflex. The aim of this study was to evaluate cVEMP and oVEMP in MS patients with and without infratentorial plaques and compare the findings with normal controls.

In this cross-sectional study, latency and amplitude of cVEMP and oVEMP were recorded in 15 healthy females with mean age of 31.13±9.27 years, 17 female MS patients with infratentorial plaque(s) and mean age of 29.88±8.93 years, and 17 female MS patients without infratentorial plaque(s) and mean age of 30.58±8.02 years. All patients underwent a complete clinical neurological evaluation and brain MRI scanning. Simple random sampling method was used in this study and data were analyzed using one way ANOVA through SPSS v22.

The latency of N1-P1 and P13 in MS participants with and without infratentorial plaques were significantly prolonged compared to normal controls (p<0.001). Additionally latency of P13- N23-N1 and P1 in MS patients with infratentorial plaques were significantly prolonged compared to patients without infratentorial plaques subjects (p<0.001).

Abnormality of both cVEMP and oVEMP in MS patient with infratentorial plaque are more than that of MS patient without infratentorial plaque. Recording both ocular and cervical VEMPs are appropriate electrophysiologic methods assessing the function of both ascending and descending central vestibular pathways.